3 ms·
Being a publisher might get you off in the States, but in a lot of countries publishers are held to be legally culpable for material they publish. So publishing
by padraic7a 7y ago
Being a publisher might get you off in the States, but in a lot of countries publishers are held to be legally culpable for material they publish. So publishing nazis, online abuse, illegal content etc is a legal issue.
- weberc2 7y ago> If it's illegal, we'll take it down. Give us a court order. Otherwise we don't touch it.
- kelnos 7y agoWhat about jurisdictions where the act of allowing something to be published will trigger a fine or other bad consequences? Doesn't it make sense to pro-actively remove things then?
- mch82 7y agoThis is also true in the US. See my reply to the parent. The Naval quote is wrong.
- anm89 7y agoHe's exactly right on it. Facebook is not a court. If certain speech is illegal, how would they even decide? If certain speech is illegal, have a court label it illegal and send them an order to remove. That concept exists within our system.
- mch82 7y agoNaval is exactly wrong. Facebook must choose between being a “platform” like a phone company and being a “publisher” like a newspaper or broadcaster. The rules are different and the accountability is different, which is why Fb lawyers spent years and millions arguing for “platform” status. Edit: my main goal for posting my comment is to prevent some startup on HN from reading the parent & deciding to classify itself as a “publisher” only to find later that was a huge mistake. I’m not a lawyer & they shouldn’t take my advice, but hopefully they’ll at least double check with someone who is.
- prepend 7y agoFacebook certainly wants to be a platform based on their lobbying. But they are clearly a publisher by setting editorial guidelines and sponsoring and removing content.